Star Trek:Odyssey 20:Through Their Eyes
by rylansato
Summary: Junior officers in different divisions experience the horrors of the Mirror War. Meanwhile, Christine Nycz volunteers for a special mission much to the dismay of Commander Merriell.
1. What is Going On?

Star Trek: Odyssey: Through Their Eyes

_Captain's Log: Stardate:58635.8 With information obtained by Lieutenant Horodyski from our mirror counterparts we have arrived at Earth in an attempt to thwart their plan to rescue their detained Christine Nycz. Along with the Alexandria, the Thunderchild, Potemkin, Lexington and Sarajevo are in orbit, waiting for the arrival of the Imperial starships._

Ensign Dinya Aboud stood in the turbolift on her way to the bridge. It was time for her duty shift and she was replacing Lieutenant Trinn at Navigation. The turbolift stopped, the doors opened and Commander Merriell and Lieutenant Commander Zofchak stepped into the turbolift. Ensign Aboud stepped back slightly to give the two senior officers some room.

Alex looked over to his friend as Dustin yawned. "You look like hell."

"I feel like it." Dustin replied.

"I take it you don't get much sleep anymore with the Twins and all."

"Sleep? There's no such thing. It's just an old space tale, like shining fairy dancers or Klingons with hearts of gold. I remember sleep. I did it once. You lie down and don't do anything for however many hours."

Alex smirked at Dustin's remark. "I wonder what this meeting is about."

"I'm not sure." The doors opened and they stepped out onto the bridge. "I guess we'll find out shortly."

The two senior officers walked into the briefing lounge while Ensign Aboud walked over to the Navigation station as Lieutenant Trinn got up and joined the senior staff. With the senior officers in the briefing lounge, Kell Perim took over on the bridge. Ensign Stephen Llewellyn took over at Ops.

"So, why do you think we've come back to Earth?" Aboud said quietly to Llewellyn as she slightly leaned towards him.

Llewellyn shrugged. "I don't know. I think it has something to do with the Empire."

"Well, it can't be a full scale assault on their part, with only a few starships here, that won't be much of a defense."

Llewellyn took his attention away from his comrade when the Ops console began beeping. "Sensors are picking up two incoming starships."

"Ours or theirs?" Perim asked.

"Ours. USS Hornet and USS Akagi."

"Still not enough against an all out assault." Aboud muttered under her breath.

Captain Allensworth rested his elbows on the conference table. "According to the report I received from Lieutenant Horodyski, it would seem our counterparts are on their way to Earth to rescue their own Christine Nycz. I have already asked Counselor Nycz, and she has agreed to this mission. We are going to replace their Nycz with ours."

"But what about…" Merriell started to say but Counselor Nycz spoke louder.

"I know the risk due to my pregnancy and I am still on active duty. And while I'm on active duty, I will perform my duties as if I was not pregnant. I volunteered for this mission."

Alex sighed and leaned back into his chair. "Ok, so what do we do with the Mirror Nycz?"

"Captain Stork will hold her on his ship. We'll battle like we're trying to stop them and we'll purposely let them go. Christine his high ranking on the ship so she might be able to get more information than Horodyski could. Any questions?" He looked to his officers and nobody did anything. "Dismissed."

The officers stood up and they all exited the room with the exception of Merriell and Nycz.

"Alex, before you say anything, I know your concern. I know you don't want me to go because I'm pregnant with your counterpart's child and if I'm caught then they could kill me and the child."

"You're damned right I don't want you to go, Chris. I don't care if that's the other Alex's kid. He is me and I am him. I want to take care of that child as its father."

The statement caught Christine off guard. The two had talked about her unborn child but had never fully decided on what they were going to do. It was only now was when Alex stated what he really wanted. It made Christine feel better about the situation with her child but she knew what she had to do with her current situation.

"Alex, I know how you feel but if you were in my position, you'd do the same. I would gladly give my life in order to win this war. If we don't win this war, then our child will not know the freedom that you and I know."

She walked over to him and kissed him on the cheek. Without saying anything, she left the observation lounge. Alex turned to stare at Earth from orbit, watching the azure planet slowly rotate. He hoped to the highest being, even if it meant hoping to the Q Continuum that Christine would come back.

The senior officers walked out from the briefing room. Ensign Aboud looked back when the officers emerged. She looked over to Llewellyn.

"I wonder what that was about." She whispered.

Captain Allensworth walked into his ready room. Doctor Plumley and Commander Zofchak entered the turbolift. Commander Sparhawk headed for the command chair and relieved Lieutenant Perim from watch. She headed to the Ops station.

Llewellyn just shrugged as he got up from Ops and headed to the Tactical station.

"Ensign Aboud, bring us to two hundred kilometers with the Thunderchild and the Potemkin." Sparhawk said.

"Aye, sir." She said.

She looked at the sensor readings and saw that all the ships were two hundred kilometers apart from one another. Her suspicion had to be correct, they had to be waiting for Imperial starships otherwise why would they hold this position.

Captain Allensworth leaned back in his chair in his ready room going over information obtained by Lieutenant Horodyski. Suddenly, the intercom kicked on.

"Sir," Perim said. "There is a message from the Thunderchild. It is Captain Stork."

"Put him through in here, Lieutenant." Allensworth said sitting up right. He pressed a button his computer terminal and the screen switched from words to the image of Captain Stork.

"Captain Allensworth, we are ready over to receive the special cargo." Stork said.

"We will beam the cargo over right away." Allensworth said.

"Thank you, Captain. Good Luck." Stork said.

"Same to you, Captain." Allensworth said just before he switched off the screen.

He tapped his comm. badge.

"Lieutenant McKenzie, escort our guest from the brig to the transporter room and beam her to the Thunderchild."

"Aye, sir."

Allensworth continued reading and he got closer to the screen as he found an interesting piece of information. He leaned back in his chair, thinking for a few moments before he tapped his comm. badge.

"Lieutenant Dowler, please report to my ready room."

"On my way, sir." She replied.HorHH


	2. The Lower Decks

Captain Stork stood in the transporter room of the USS Thunderchild with two security officers. The transporter activated and a column of blue light swirled into existence. Within the light, Christine Nycz materialized, rather the mirror Christine Nycz. Once the transport sequence had ended, the two guards stepped up onto the pad and brought down the mirror Nycz.

"For the time being you will be held on my ship."

Nycz didn't say anything. She just nodded. Captain Stork was not pleased with her response. He grabbed her by her chin and held her face close to his.

"I know that in the Terran Empire, you guys kill the person above you to move up in rank. Around here in this universe, when a superior officer says something to you, you respond with 'yes, sir.' Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir." She muttered.

"What?"

"YES, SIR!" She yelled through the grasp of her face.

Stork turned around and walked out of the transporter room with the other three in tow. Moments later, they walked through doors that led to the brig. They walked into the cell area and Stork turned and faced the prisoner.

"I've lost a lot of friends in this war; a war that you started. This war happened for no reason." He said circling her. "You guys invade our space and expect us to lie down. That won't happen."

He stopped when he was behind her and grabbed her arms. He positioned them outward and horizontal. He then used his foot to push against the back of her knees to slightly bend them.

"You are now in what we call a trained stress position." Stork said. The captain looked at her and could see that she was trying to keep her poise but was still afraid. He turned away and headed out.

"If she moves, shoot her." He said moments before he walked out the door.

Ensign Aboud and Ensign Llewellyn sat with their friends Ensign Svetlana Suvorova and Ensign Jessica Gage in Ten Forward. Suvorova was working as a doctor intern with Doctor Plumley and Gage was in engineering. All four of them graduated from the academy together.

"Do you know what this is about?" Aboud asked.

Suvorova shook her head. "No, but Doctor Plumley was telling us to be prepared for anything."

"Same with Commander Zofchak. He was practically telling us the same thing." Gage said.

"What do you think is going on?" Aboud asked.

"Well, we are in the middle of a war." Suvorova said.

"Dinya here, likes to think something big is going to happen." Llewellyn said.

"You worry too much, Dinya." Jessica said.

"Then why are there six other starships…"

"Nine." Llewellyn said.

"What?" Aboud asked.

"Nine. There are nine other starships out there. The Juneau, Helena, and San Francisco entered the system just before I went off duty."

"That just adds to my theory that we're expecting something from the empire."

"Earth is the heart of the Federation and the empire could attack Earth at any time. Just because there are ten starships surrounding Earth doesn't mean anything." Gage said.

"We'll see." Dinya said.

At that moment, the doors to Ten Forward opened and Dustin, Hoshi and the twins walked in and sat down at a table.

"They are just the cutest kids I have ever seen." Gage said.

"You're just saying that because he's your commanding officer."

Gage shook her head. "No, I'm serious. Their kids are so adorable."

The chief engineer and his family sat down. Dustin had Ryou on his lap and Kyou was on Hoshi's lap. Hoshi had just come off maternity leave and were having family dinner. Gage continued to look towards the two senior officers and their daughters.

Suvorova tapped Jessica's cheek with the back of her fingers. "Quit staring."

"I'm not staring."

"You like him, don't you." Svetlana teased.

Jessica slightly blushed. "N..No I don't. I just like working with him."

"Yeah, whatever." Svetlana said.

The Mirror Christine Nycz, continued standing the same position that Captain Stork had positioned her several hours earlier. Security guards continued to stay near her and continued to watch her.

"Do you think they do stuff like this over there?" One of them asked.

"I'm sure they do worse." The other said.

Suddenly, Nycz fell over. The two guards looked at her not exactly know what to do.

"What do we do now?"

"The captain said watch her. I'm watching her."

"Don't you think we should check on her?"

"Nope."

Lieutenant Hooper disregarded what his comrade had said and walked over to the fallen Nycz and tapped her knee. "Hey, you all right?" He holstered his phaser and knelt down next to her. "You alive atleast?"

Suddenly, Nycz rolled around, grabbing the lieutenant's knees and rolled him to the ground. She got on top and began choking him. Lieutenant Hazenfield ran over to help his friend. He tackled Nycz and slammed her face first into the deck. He grabbed her by the hair and pressed the phaser against her temple.

"Don't you ever try that again or I'll kill you."

"Don't make promises that you can't keep." She said.

He pulled her to feet and practically threw her into her chair. The two lieutenants walked out and activated the forcefield.

Commander Merriell sat on the bridge at the Ops station when his console started beeping. He pressed a few buttons and realized that the sensors had picked up something.

"Sir, sensors are picking up an interspatial anomaly that is forming in orbit above Saturn."

Allensworth walked over to his third officer and looked down at the readings. "It looks like our counterparts are making their run." He turned back around and headed for his chair. "Red alert. All hands battlestations."

The red alert klaxon sounded. Dustin and Hoshi quickly grabbed the twins and hurriedly headed out of the room. Aboud looked to her friends. "See, I told you guys that something was going to happen."

"Oh be quiet." Llewellyn said.

The four of them walked out of Ten Forward and headed for their respective stations.


	3. Battle Above Earth

Both Llwellyn and Aboud stepped onto the bridge and walked over to their stations on the starboard side of the bridge. They both saw on the view screen multiple starships emerge from the anomaly forming above Saturn. Aboud saw her hand slightly shaking with trepidation. She looked over to Stephen who looked solid as a rock. She figured he was used to this because he was Security. She was only a navigator and all she did was fly the ship. His job was to protect, so it was natural for him to be fearless in a situation like this.

"Number and type of ships, Lieutenant McKenzie." Sparhawk said.

"Three Ambassador, four Galaxy, two Akira, three Prometheus and one Sovereign. Thirteen total, sir."

"They look pretty confident." Allensworth said.

"They shouldn't. Not after the pasting we gave them at Deneva." Sparhawk said.

Surorova walked into Sickbay and saw the rest of the medical staff getting prepared.

"Lana," Plumley said from across the room. "We're going to receive a lot of injured, so be ready."

"Ok, Doctor."

Lana was a nickname people used for her instead of saying her full name. She actually preferred people use her nickname because it sounded more personal. She walked over to the supply cabinet and began pulling out tricorders and hyposprays.

Gage turned the corner into Main Engineering. She was surprised to see that Commander Zofchak had beaten her down there. He amused the thought of Dustin having a Jefferies tube that went from his quarters straight to engineering. He was standing at a wall panel entering commands into the console. She walked up to the panel beside him and began pressing buttons.

"You got down here quick, Commander." Gage said.

"Hoshi took the twins back to our quarters before heading to the bridge. She wanted me to head straight here."

"If she's on the bridge, who's looking after the twins?" Gage asked.

"T'Pol. We asked her if she would like to be the twins' nanny when Hoshi went back to active duty. She traveled from Vulcan to Earth to meet up with us here. T'Pol and Hoshi go way back."

"Why didn't she just leave the twins in the nursery?"

"She didn't feel comfortable leaving the twins there."

Gage nodded in acknowledgement.

"Do you have children, Ensign?"

Gage shook her head. "No I don't, sir. I want them though."

"Well take your time. It is definitely worth the wait. It's one of the best things that have ever happened to me."

Suddendly, the ship rocked.

"Looks like the battle has begun." Gage said.

"Come about to course three seven zero mark nine one five." Allensworth ordered.

Lieutenant Trinn entered the commands into her console. "Coming about to three seven zero mark nine one five, switching to two thirds impulse."

"Photon torpedoes ready." McKenzie said.

"Dispersal pattern: Sierra. Fire."

The Alexandria-A opened fire with a barrage of photon torpedoes that struck ISS Alexandria.

The Mirror Allensworth gripped his chair as his ship shook.

"So they want to have it this way. Fine. Sato, tell the rest of the fleet to cover us while we lower our shields to beam up our crewmember. Tell them to focus on the Alexandria-A while firing on the rest of the fleet."

"Yes, sir." She said.

The ISS Horus and ISS Red Cloud can up and over the Alexandria and opened fire on the Federation ships. The three Ambassador class ships increased to full impulse as well as the Galaxy class ships and the Prometheus class ships broke off into their multi-vector forms.

The Alexandria-A maneuvered around them and tried to get a clear shot at their mirror counterpart. Allensworth saw a fierce volley of photon torpedoes headed their way. Fortunately, Trinn saw them too. The starship swiftly plunged out of the way, suffering only a hit from two of the five torpedoes.

"Shields down to eighty-seven percent." McKenzie said.

The San Francisco ran along side the Alexandria-A taking a lot of hits to her starboard side. Suddenly, a transphasic torpedo slammed into the secondary hull. It spun out of control and its nacelles barely missing the Alexandria.

"Sir, a warp core breach is in progress on the San Francisco." Merriell said.

Allensworth felt helpless when it came to the crew of the San Francisco. He wanted to beam them to his ship to save them but the minute they lowered their shields, they'd be vulnerable to attack.

The ISS Alexandria took a defensive stance above Earth as it lowered its shields. Three mirror Galaxy class ships took a triangular formation to protect the ship.

"We are beaming her up now, sir." The transporter chief said over the intercom.

"Excellent." Allensworth said. "Raise shields once she's on board." He watched the battle on the view screen. He noticed the escape pods were jettisoned away from the dying hull of the San Francisco. "Lieutenant, fire phasers and destroy those escape pods." He said.

"Aye, sir."

The phaser array of the ISS Alexandria lit up and discharged in the direction of the helpless escape pods.

Merriell turned in his chair towards his captain. "Sir, they have beamed Counselor Nycz to their ship."

"We're being hailed. Audio only" Sato said.

"Open a channel."

"Ah, Captain Allensworth. How are you this fine day?"

"What do you want?"

"To boast that we got what we came for, which you probably already know who since you have a fleet waiting for us. One thing I don't understand, Captain, is that why would you send your own Christine Nycz to act like ours?" Merriell's heart dropped when he heard those words. "All we came for is our Nycz and you couldn't even let us do that. This time it will cost you. And don't worry we'll take good care of Christine for you."

The screen switched off.

"JERMAINE, YOU BASTARD!" Allensworth yelled as he stood up.

"Sir, they're opening another interspatial anomaly. They're getting away."HorHH

"Fire transphasic torpedoes." Allensworth said as he slammed his fist down on the arm of the chair in frustration.

The ISS Alexandria disappeared from view through the anomaly.

"They're gone….sir." Merriell said as he let his arms drop to his side.

The bridge was silent. Allensworth stood there thinking how could he have let this happen? How could he have allowed his one of his own to fall into their hands?

Suddenly, the ship rocked as a photon torpedo slammed into the underside of the saucer section. The other mirror starships remained to fight the Federation fleet. The rocking of the ship brought Jermaine back to reality. He had a duty to do and that was to safeguard the ship and the Federation. He would have to deal with getting Christine back after the battle.

The Mirror Allensworth walked into the transporter room where Christine Nycz stood with two armed guards on both sides of her. Nycz was dressed in the Imperial uniform looking like she belonged in their universe but Allensworth knew that it wasn't their own Nycz.

"Ah, Christine Nycz. Don't worry trying to act like you are our own. I already know that you are the counterpart of ours. But don't you worry; I'll send Counselor Freed down to pay you a visit." He looked to the two guards. "Put her in the brig."

The two guards grabbed her arms and escorted her out as Allensworth walked in the opposite direction. Moments later, he walked into his quarters with his personal guard stopping at the door and standing guard. Allensworth was approached by Lieutenant Dowler. Allensworth always loved how she looked in her Imperial uniform. He put his arms around her waist as she rested hers on his shoulders and interlocked her fingers behind his neck.

"I'm going to be late getting in tonight. Our counterparts tried to use their own Nycz to act like ours, but I figured them out. Now we have their Nycz in the brig."

"You do what you have to do. I'll be here waiting for you." Dowler said.

Allensworth smiled as he kissed her. Without saying anything further, he walked out the door leaving Dowler by herself.

She let out a small sigh of relief as she walked into another room where another Lieutenant Dowler was laying on the deck.

"He may have figured out Christine but he didn't figure me out." She said as she dealt with the body of her mirror counterpart.


	4. Intruders Everywhere

Lieutenant Dowler walked down the corridors of the ISS Alexandria. She wanted to save Christine but the mission involved her gathering information. She heard screaming coming from an adjacent corridor. She turned the corner and to her absolute horror, she saw Christine in the agony booth. She had read reports about the torture device but had never seen it in person. She was in total paralyzing shock. She wanted to save her but it would blow her cover.

"Ah, Lieutenant." Freed said. "I'm glad you could come and witness one of my hobbies."

"I wanted to see if she would release any information." Dowler said.

"Not yet. She's a resilient one, but I'll break her."

_Hopefully, I can get her out of there before any damage can be done to her unborn child._

"Tch, Federation bitch." A voice said from beside her.

She looked over to see the mirror counterpart of Lieutenant Walker. Without thinking, she reached over and grabbed the agonizer off the Lieutenant's belt and slammed it into his chest. He cried out in pain. She kept it pressed against his chest until he was on the floor.

"Why did you do that?" He asked.

"Because I felt like it." She said before storming off.

It was around the time for Allensworth to be back in his quarters, so she decided to head back and see if she could get any information out of him.

The battle continued even after the leading Imperial vessel left the battlefield. The Federation forces were holding their ground against a formidable enemy. The Alexandria-A was taking a pounding. It was as if the Imperial forces were focusing on the Sovereign class ship. At least that's what it seemed to Captain Allensworth.

"Target the flanking Akira class. And fire torpedoes." Allensworth ordered.

The Alexandria fired multiple photon torpedoes that slammed into the shields of the opposing Akira class ship.

The Thunderchild also took a beating. Their starboard nacelle flew off from the rest of the ship.

"The Thunderchild lost its starboard nacelle." Hoshi reported.

"Tell them to withdraw." Allensworth ordered.

A Prometheus class came from the starboard side of the Alexandria, firing phasers. The Alexandria shook from the multiple impacts. Sparks flew from the console next to Ensign Aboud's station sending the crewmember to the deck. She looked back to see if her comrade was okay but she could tell that he was not. His neck was ripped open and the collar of the uniform was torn as well. She saw the crewman's lifeless eyes staring into nothingness. Ensign Llewellyn was stationed at that very console but he had been assigned to Deck seven in case of intruders.

"We have lost shields." Merriell reported.

Suddenly, the intruder alarm sounded.

"Intruder alert on Deck Seven." McKenzie said.

Dinya was flat out scared. One of her good friends was on Deck Seven and was about to be face to face with members of the Terran Empire. She was scared but she knew that it was his duty to protect the ship at any cost, even if it meant his life. She was about as scared as the time the Empire had attacked Earth, during her final year at the academy. Her hands shook as she pressed the various controls at her station.

Allensworth looked to Jason and nodded. Allensworth's first officer nodded in return. Jason looked back at McKenzie.

"Let's go."

McKenzie and Sparhawk left their stations and entered the turbolift. When Dinya realized that Sparhawk and McKenzie here headed to Deck Seven, she felt just a little bit better.

The ship shook viciously again and the tactical station erupted in the face of the Ensign who had taken over for McKenzie. Allensworth looked back to see that the Ensign was not getting up.

"Power cupling severed in forward phaser banks. Attempting to bypass." Merriell shook his head. "Controls not responding, sir."

"Federation ship, Alexandria. Stand down and surrender." A voice said over the intercom.

"That'll be the day." Allensworth said.

Like hell Allensworth was going to surrender. He got up from his chair and got to the tactical station. He manned the controls and fired his ship's weapons.

Suddenly, multiple columns of light appeared in different areas of the bridge. They were being boarded again. Everyone got down as a phaser fight erupted in the middle of the bridge. Allensworth moved behind Sparhawk's chair and fired his phaser at a man who was about to get the drop on Sato. Aboud's eyes went wide when one of the intruders pointed their phaser at her. A phaser discharged but it wasn't the intruder's, it was Lieutenant Crawford's phaser that had discharged. The intruder fell to the deck. Aboud let out a sigh of relief and smiled at Crawford but then her facial expression turned into one of horror when a phaser beam struck Crawford square in the back. Crawford dropped to her knees and then fell forward to the deck. Aboud reached for her phaser in retaliation but all she saw was darkness before her hand reached her phaser.

It wasn't long before Dowler had reached the quarters that she, rather her mirror counterpart and the captain shared. The captain's personal guard was standing outside the door, which meant the captain had returned. She walked in to see the captain sitting behind his desk.

"What do you think you're doing?" She asked.

"Going over status reports." He replied.

"This is supposed to be your own place to get away from reports and the rest of the ship's activities." She said as she pulled the padd from his hands and set it on the table.

"You're the only one out of this entire crew that I don't mind giving in to."

Dowler unzipped Jermaine's uniform jacket and the upper part of the red turtleneck underneath and began kissing his neck.

It was weird for her to be doing this, to Captain Allensworth no less, but she had to if she wanted to fit the part and get what she needed.

"Ah, I can't wait for the war to be over and our counterparts dead." Allensworth said.

"When will that happen?" Dowler asked.

"Command is planning a major offensive against the Federation. It's projected to happen at the end of the year in December."

Dowler continued to kiss the captain so he would keep talking. Suddenly, he wrapped on arm around her and used the other arm to push everything on the desk aside. He then laid her down on the table, unzipped the front of her top and started by kissing her lips.

Commander Zofchak had erected the forcefield around warp core to prevent a phaser beam from hitting it. Intruders had beamed in and opened fire. Multiple engineers were hit during the initial shots. The firefight only lasted a few seconds but it seemed to last for hours. After the last intruder fell, Zofchak rose up from his crouched position. Ensign Gage walked out from her cover spot and began giving the systems a check over making sure they were still functional.

"Gage, try and get those shields back up. We don't want any more unexpected guests." Zofchak said.

"I'm on it, sir."

Another column of light appeared in engineering and before anyone could act, Ensign Gage was grabbed and held tightly by the new intruder. She struggled to get free but the attempts were futile she then realized she was being held by a Klingon that served the Empire. The intruder held Gage tightly as he ripped open his uniform jacket, revealing components strung together that made up a photon bomb. He yelled out to the crew in Klingon. He held the detonator in his hand.

"What the hell is he saying?" Kazarick said from her position.

Dustin wasn't fluent in Klingon but he knew enough thanks to Hoshi teaching him. "He's saying he'll blow us all to Sto-vo-kor."

"Will he do it?" Kazarick asked.

"Serving the Terran Empire, absolutely. He'd be proud to."

Then the Klingon raised his head towards the ceiling and began to chant.

"What's he saying now?"

Dustin listened for a moment and then his eyes widened. "The prayer for the dead. He's gonna do it. EVERYBODY, EVACUATE ENGINEERING!"

Most of the people ran, listening to Zofchak's orders but Kazarick and Zofchak remained with their phasers trained on the Klingon.

Gage looked to Zofchak and forced a smile for her commanding officer. Zofchak realized what she was going to do.

"GAGE, NO!" He said standing to his feet.

Gage slapped her communicator. "Transporter room, lock on to this communicator badge and energize."

She looked back at Zofchak and mouthed the word: "Goodbye."

Seconds later, the transporter beam enveloped both of them and then they both were gone.

An explosion erupted in the vastness of space off the port side of the Alexandria.

"Report." Allensworth said.

"The Imperial fleet has been defeated." Merriell said sitting back in his chair.

"How many ships did we lose?"

"Five, sir. The Lexington, Sarajevo, Helena, San Fransico and Juneau."

Allensworth sighed.

_That's still too many to lose during a small skirmish like this._

"Now all we need to do is hope that Lieutenant Dowler is successful in her mission."

_And hope that Christine comes back alive._


	5. Tears and Triumph

Ensign Suvorova attended to the injured in sickbay by running around, applying hyposprays, assessing who needed what and how badly they were injured and who needed attention first. Then the doors opened to allow two antigrav beds to enter.

"Ensign Suvorova, can you assist me with these?" Doctor Plumley said as she walked over to them pulling a tricorder out of her lab coat pocket.

"Sure, Doctor." She said handing a hypospray to a nurse nearby.

Doctor Plumley removed the sheet of one of the bodies and Svetlana gasped. It was the body of Ensign Dinya Aboud. The sudden reaction caught Plumley by surprise.

"Lana, did you know her?"

She nodded. "Yes, she was one of my friends. We went to the academy together."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Amanda said. "I won't have you do this one then. We'll do the other one."

Plumley turned around to the antigrav bed behind her and Suvorova walked over to it, wiping tears away from her face. Plumley pulled the sheet away and Svetlana put her hand to her mouth. It was Ensign Stephen Llewellyn. The left side of his face was badly burned as if his head was hit with a phaser beam. Amanda looked to the young Ensign.

"You knew him too?"

Svetlana nodded. He attended the academy with Dinya and I. There were four of us that went to the academy together and we were lucky enough to have been stationed on the same ship. That's a rare thing, so we figured we would be friends till the end.

"Who was the fourth?" Amanda asked.

"Ensign Jessica Gage."

"From Engineering?"

Svetlana nodded. "I hope she's okay." She tapped her communicator. "Suvorova to Gage."

No response.

"Suvorova to Gage. Come in please." Svetlana said only this time there was more urgency in her voice and tears were coming out of her eyes.

"Are you trying to get a hold of Ensign Gage?" A voice said behind her.

Svetlana turned around to see Lieutenant Commander Hilary Kazarick standing there nursing her shoulder.

Suvorova nodded. "Yes, I am. Do you know where she is?"

"I'm sorry for you to find out like this but she died. She beamed herself out into space along with a suicidal Klingon. She saved the ship from destruction. You shouldn't feel sad for Ensign Gage, she saved us all. She's a true hero in my book.

Svetlana couldn't hold it anymore. She let the tears come pouring out. Doctor Plumley came to her side and held her close as if she were her own daughter.

"Lana, why don't you just go back to your quarters? You've been through a lot and you wouldn't be much good down her e in your current state of mind."

Svetlana nodded, turned around and left sickbay.

Lieutenant Dowler awoke a short time later in bed with Captain Allensworth. She felt kind of dirty for doing such an act with someone she barely knew, or in her case someone she didn't know at all. She knew Captain Allensworth but not this particular Allensworth. She secretly and quietly snuck out of bed and got dressed. She placed the fake Terran Empire communicator on her chest, and slid the knife, up to the handle, down her left knee high black boot. She crept over to the computer terminal and entered certain commands that allowed her to do more than the standard clearance a Lieutenant would normally be granted.

She had to hurry because only God knew how long Christine would last being tortured by such a savage group of people. All the data she accessed was stored onto an isolenear chip. Once finished, she pulled the chip out and placed it on the inside of her gold sash that wrapped around her waist, just below her naval. She stood up and walked out of their shared quarters.

She had the information needed to report back to her own captain but she needed to save Counselor Nycz. She headed back to where she saw her last. She wasn't at all surprised to see her still in the agony booth. Nycz was leaning against the side of the clear tube and breathing heavily. Two security officers were standing there laughing at Nycz while manning the controls.

"This is what we're going to do to your pathetic Federation. We'll bring them to their knees." One of them said.

Dowler approached them. They looked back at her and were a bit surprised by her unannounced appearance.

"We're playing with Counselor Freed's new toy." The other said. "Do you want to join?"

"Sure." Dowler said.

Satisfied with her answer they turned back around with grins on their faces.

She reached down and grabbed her knife. She plunged the blade into the neck of one of the Lieutenants and then grabbed the phaser off his belt and pressed the firing stud while aiming it at the other. The other Lieutenant was thrown back into the bulkhead and was dead before hitting the ground.

Dowler pressed a few buttons on the control board to release the counselor. The clear tube spun and the two archways met to allow Christine to escape. She could barely walk on her own so Liz helped her out of the torture chamber.

"Come on, Counselor. We need to get to the transporter room before we're noticed." Dowler said.

Captain Allensworth shifted in his sleep and put his arm where his woman was once laying. The absence of her body caused him to wake up. He did not know where she had gone. She had nowhere to go at this time of the day.

He reached over and grabbed his communicator pin. "Allensworth to Dowler."

No response.

"Allensworth to Dowler."

Still no response but this time he heard a slight echo. He stood up out of bed and repeated his calls and continued to hear a slight echo. At first he thought it was a malfunction in the comm. system but it got louder as he approached a storage closet. He opened the door and to find it cluttered with random items. He hailed Dowler once again and once again he heard the echo. This time it was louder and he heard it come from behind everything. He pulled out everything and to his surprise he saw the body of his woman. The first thoughts of his mind was that someone silently murdered her while he slept but she was cold to the touch meaning she had been there for hours. Then he realized that his counterpart had pulled one over on him, using Nycz as a decoy. Infuriated he called out into the air.

"INTRUDER ALERT!"

The alarm went off as Christine and Liz had stepped off the turbolift.

"Damn, they must be onto us."

The two quickened their pace to the transporter room. Dowler could see the doors up ahead. Suddenly, a phaser beam struck the bulkhead in front of them. Liz turned around and fired her phaser, striking one of the security guards. She heard one of them report their position. She continued to fire behind her as they moved forward to the transporter room.

They were only inches away when another group of people standing in her way of the transporter room doors. This one was led by Captain Allensworth himself.

"You almost got away. And I must admit you had me fooled, up to the part when I discovered my Lieutenant Dowler in the storage closet in my quarters. Now drop your phaser and I may spare your life."

Liz dropped her phaser out of her left hand but at the same time, her right hand opened up to reveal an emergency transport beacon and slapped it on Nycz's back and a transporter beam enveloped them both and whisked them away to safety.

Allensworth slammed his fist against the bulkhead with anger, knowing full well that his counterpart had bested him.

Dowler and Nycz materialized on the transporter pad of their own Alexandria. They were relieved to see Doctor Plumley and a few members of her staff ready to help them.

"So why didn't you use that when you got me out of the agony booth?" Nycz asked.

"Because when Commander Zofchak gave me this, he told me that he wasn't entirely sure it was going to work and to use it in an emergency. He told me to use their transporters if we were able to."

Christine nodded as Doctor Plumley helped her off the transporter platform. Plumley looked over the readings on her tricorder.

"That pain tolerance enhancer really helped out a lot, Doctor."

"That's good to hear. It also helped the tolerance or your child and it appears to be healthy."

Christine let out a sigh of relief. Lieutenant Dowler pulled the isolenear chip out from her sash.

"I've got to give this to the captain." She said "I'll stop by later and see how you're doing."

Ensign Suvorova sat in her quarters looking at a picture of herself, Ensign Gage, Ensign Llewellyn and Ensign Aboud just after they graduated from the academy. She thought back to the good times she had with her friends. Her trance was broken when the chime to her quarters pulled her back to reality.

"Come in." She said sniffling.

The doors opened and to her surprise she saw Commander Zofchak standing there.

"Am I disturbing you, Ensign?" He asked.

"No, not at all, sir." She said wiping away her tears. "Please come in."

Zofchak stepped in and the doors shut behind him.

"What can I do for you, sir?"

"Well, I know you were Jess's friend and I assume you heard what happened and I wanted to check up on you. I know losing a friend is tough and I had heard you lost two other friends as well."

"Isn't what you're doing a job for the ship's counselor?" Svetlana asked.

"It is but Jess talked about you and the others a lot. She considered you guys to be her best friends."

Without saying anything more, Svetlana stood up from her chair with tears about to fall from her eyes. She walked over to Dustin and hugged him tightly.

Counselor Nycz walked out of Sickbay, still a little sore from the torture methods used on her, and headed to the bridge to talk to the captain. She stepped onto the turbolift. On her way to the bridge, the lift stopped and the doors opened to show a Commander Merriell standing there. The second officer stepped onto the lift with a smile on his face. The two looked at each other as the doors closed.

Commander Sparhawk walked around the bridge, making sure everything was normal. The doors opened and Sparhawk looked over to see who was stepping onto the bridge. To his surprise he saw Merriell and Nycz kissing. He raised his eyebrows and looked around the bridge, seeing that everyone had noticed the couple in the turbolift. He fought hard to keep from smiling. He just walked over to the console that was next to his chair and pressed a button to close the doors of the turbolift.

_Captain's Log: Counselor Nycz and Lieutenant Dowler have returned safely from the Mirror Universe. Their mission was a success. While I was worried about what Counselor Nycz had gone through, Doctor Plumley reports she and her baby are fine. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Dowler has reported her findings and what we should expect from the coming months from the Terran Empire._

Lieutenant Dowler stood in front of Captain Allensworth in his ready room.

"It looks like we need to be ready come December." Allensworth said.

"Yes, sir."

"From the looks of this information, it looks like their sending about eighty-five percent of their fleet to destroy us. I'll have to go over this information with Admiral Kreimer and see what she thinks."

At that moment, the door chimed.

"Come in." He said.

Lieutenant Trinn walked in as the doors opened.

"Am I intruding, sir?"

"No, Lieutenant come in sit down." Allensworth looked to Dowler. "That'll be all, Lieutenant."

"Yes, sir." She said before walking out.

"What's on your mind, Lieutenant?"

"Well, sir. First, I want to say that I appreciate all you've done for me over this past year of serving with you." She hesitated a bit. Allensworth knew what was coming but wanted her to ask it herself. "Sir, I want to request a transfer to the Thunderchild."

Even though he knew what she was she was going to say, it still surprised him to hear it. "What is your reason, Lieutenant?"

"Well sir, Captain Stork offered me a position on his ship as Operations officer and a promotion to Lieutenant Commander. They lost their former Operations officer during the battle and he was looking over my service record thus is why he offered the position to me."

Allensworth sat back in his chair. "Wow, a two rank jump. Is this what you really want?"

Trinn nodded.

Allensworth continued to think for a few moments. "Well Lieutenant, the only thing I can say to you right now is: permission granted."

A smile crept across Michelle's face. "Thank you, sir."

Allensworth stood up, which prompted Trinn to stand up. He held out his hand for her to take. "Congratulations on your promotion and good luck to you, Lieutenant…Commander."

"Thank you, sir." She said shaking his hand.

He smiled at her as she turned and walked out of his ready room. His smile faded as he sat down and leaned back in his chair. He sat there thinking for a moment before grabbing his cup of tea and standing up. He turned and stared out the window to the planet down below he once called home.

The End


End file.
